Crash Course in Romance (2023)

Our Comments

We really enjoyed this series. It is a combination of romantic drama with some light comedic moments, but also with an ongoing mystery, culminating in more serious episodes near the end dealing with the mystery.

The acting is great, especially in how they portray the issues the show deals with, including suicide, the social damage caused by gossip, murder, the stress that teens go through at school and private academy (Hagwon) classes in South Korea, parental pressure causing mental breakdowns, as well as autism.

A good part of the series is set in the banchan (Korean side dish) store that the main female lead runs. However, even with all those potential side dishes to feature, they hardly show any of them. It is a bit of a lost opportunity to show off the many amazing Korean side dishes.

Even though a good portion of the storyline in Crash Course in Romance is about the importance of good food to one’s health, most of the dishes shown are incidental to the storyline. They don’t focus much on the food, and it is only occasionally that they focus on what is being eaten. Nonetheless, there are still a good number of different types of Korean food shown.

The series will keep you wanting to watch the next one, but the great thing about it (as with many Korean dramas) is that you know they’ll close out the storyline properly very soon (in this season), as it’s a one-season series.

Crash Course in Romance has a good, satisfying ending, with all the issues of the characters explained and resolved, so you won’t finish feeling “but what about…?”